A handful of large Japanese enterprises operating in Vietnam admit to not harbouring plans to expand their operations in the country in 2016, while almost 64 percent want to increase local operations this year.

Canon and Panasonic are two such enterprises. Representatives of Panasonic and Canon told VIR that they would not expand their operations in Vietnam in 2016. However, the reasons were undisclosed.

Having entered Vietnam in 2001, Canon currently runs three printer factories in the country. Its first, located in Hanoi’s Thang Long industrial park, began exporting printers  May 2002.

The $97 million ink-jet printer factory in the northern province of Bac Ninh’s Tien Son industrial zone (IZ), which was built in 2007, currently has a capacity of eight million units per annum. The plant is expected to reach the output of 10.8 million products per year and employ 5,400 local workers by 2016.

The company also operates a $50 million factory in Bac Ninh province’s Que Vo IZ, manufacturing low-cost laser printers for export chiefly to Japan, the US, and Europe. The factory has an annual capacity of 8.4 million units and creates 3,000 jobs.

Panasonic, entering Vietnam in 2005, has invested about $234 million in its Vietnam facilities to date, to produce TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and electrical components.

In November 2014, Panasonic Eco Solutions Vietnam Co., Ltd., a Panasonic Corporation subsidiary, opened its new $18.5 million wiring device and circuit factory in the southern province of Binh Duong. The factory’s initial capacity reached 30 million wiring devices and 5.15 million circuit breakers. This capacity will be doubled by 2018.

In addition to the wiring and circuit factory, Panasonic currently operates four other factories and an R&D centre, namely Panasonic Industrial Devices Vietnam (PIDVN), Panasonic System Networks Vietnam (PSNV), and Panasonic Appliances Vietnam (PAPVN) in Hanoi’s Thang Long Industrial Park, Panasonic AVC Networks Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, and a Panasonic R&D Centre Vietnam Co. Ltd in Hanoi.

According to Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO)’s 2015 survey on Japanese enterprises’ operations in Asia and Oceania, which was released on February 23, almost 64 per cent of the over 1,000 Japanese enterprises operating in Vietnam in the survey have plans to expand local operations. These figures are buoyed by prospects of high economic growth and major benefits from the recently-established ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

The percentage of respondents in Vietnam planning to expand operations was rather high compared to other countries in the region, such as Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, China, and Malaysia, which sported percentages of 52, 49, 55, 38, and 45, respectively.

According to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA)’s statistics, as of December 20, 2015, Japan was Vietnam’s second biggest foreign investor with the total registered capital of $44.9 billion in 4,944 projects. In January 2016 alone, Japanese firms registered $62.3 million in nine new projects and $72.2 million in expanded projects.